The Paranoid Style Podcast
The Paranoid Style Podcast
Cursed Movies - The Exorcist & Rosemary's Baby
This week The Paranoid Style Podcast is CURSED!!! I mean, even more than usual! We're looking into cursed movies, where the only thing more dangerous on the set than the critics reviews are the mysterious deaths, injuries and spooky occurrences. From Pazuzu to Pizzookies, from demonic diapers to possessed but plucky tweens, from Mia Farrow to Zoe Saldana, no wait, neither of us have seen the remake. What an excellent day for an exorcism!
Clip from:
"The Exorcist" (1973) - William Friedkin Horror Movie
If you have any topic suggestions for the show or any tales to share, please email us at theparanoidstylepod@gmail.com and follow us on Instagram @theparanoidstylepod or on twitter @style_paranoid.
Opening theme music provided by Tony Molina. You can hear more of his music at https://tonymolina650.bandcamp.com/
Cursed Movies Pt.1
ARK:: [00:00:00] Hey sister.
CCK:: Hey sister. And Hey listeners. This is the paranoid style podcast. We are two sisters who want to believe everything they hear and trust no one. So they started a podcast about it.
ARK:: I'm Amanda and I don't believe I have ever been cursed or living under a curse that someone placed on me.
CCK:: Interesting. I [00:00:30] do think I was once cursed.
ARK:: And your Christine,
CCK:: Oh, yeah. I'm Christine cursed, Christine. Okay. So I was walking down the street with a friend who shall remain nameless
ARK:: my God. Yes. I love this story.
CCK:: We walked past the storefront psychic reading place and
the psychic
Had the door kind of propped open. And the thing that I noticed first was the distinct [00:01:00] smell of dirty diapers.
So we're walking past and she said, Hey, do you want a psychic reading?
And I said, no things. And we kept walking. And as soon as we'd gotten a little way away from the shop, I had the distinct feeling, which I know is so we were in San Francisco, but I felt like she was trying to get into my head. I had the distinct feeling that she was trying to impose. Mind [00:01:30] on my mind, which I have never felt before.
And I just had this feeling in my head, just this incredible feeling of no. And I pictured blowing a hurricane worth of wind, to get her out of my head. Yeah. So that is the only time I've ever felt like someone was trying to curse me. Of course. Maybe she was going to do thinner in which case I probably should have just let it happen.
ARK:: Yeah. Oh my God, that story is amazing.[00:02:00]
CCK:: I've never felt anything before, like it, or since, and at the time I was very surprised by the whole, like, I, I felt like it wasn't something I created.
It was something that I felt very surprised by. but but probably I've just watched too many movies
ARK:: And I know that your recreation of the event is just that you said no, thank you. When she asked you, if you wanted a psychic reading, but I know you personally so I know that [00:02:30] most people who don't know you and your response to them would come off as very. Very friendly and like. like, oh, this person's a pushover.
you know what I mean? Because you are very polite And very friendly. and
CCK:: Because truthfully my response is, oh, no, thank you. But thank you very much.
ARK:: Yeah. Like, Oh my God. thank you. But no, not today, not right Now
CCK:: but now I, you know, I just [00:03:00] had a psychic reading and I'm not really prepared for another.
ARK:: Yeah. So I can see how she would have been mistaken in thinking, oh, this is going to, be an easy mark.
CCK:: That was one of the weirdest things that I've ever felt in my brain.
ARK:: that's amazing.
CCK:: if my brain did it, it was still pretty crazy.
And speaking of crazy, this week, we're discussing cursed movies.
ARK:: like the video from the ring where [00:03:30] you watch it and seven days later you die or 27 dresses.
starring Katherine Heigl.
CCK:: You mean where seven days later you wondered, why did I watch 27 dresses with Katherine Heigl in the theater three times. Never. Nevermind. No, not like that. More like are some movies which have a production that is so plagued by stranger unexplainable issues, or that have people in the [00:04:00] cast and crew struck with misfortune ranging from the mildly inconvenient to the super tragic either during or after filming.
And that has made people come up with a theory that the films themselves were cursed.
ARK:: Which got me thinking about the nature of curses. Like just generally speaking, we tend to think of curses as a breaking of a covenant. So either you promise to do something that you didn't do. [00:04:30] And now you're cursed, or you did something that you weren't supposed to do,
CCK:: like read Latin from the ancient book bound in human
ARK:: Exactly which by the way, is the reason I only read
from a Kindle nowadays books cannot be trusted
CCK:: or there's the classic hexing from an outside party. May every bird in a 10 mile radius find your car, a convenient toilet, like the shit books.
ARK:: Man. Okay. [00:05:00] Sister, as someone who has actually suffered, through that curse, apparently I have been curse. I don't really find humor in it. but yes, Very good example. And then there is what we have happening in these movies that we'll discuss today.
which I guess is its own form of sympathetic
CCK:: or unsympathetic magic
ARK:: But it is still like attracting like, the nature of these movie curses kind of [00:05:30] seems to be that if you dabble in the forces of darkness for entertainment purposes, then perhaps sometimes those forces will insist on collecting residual.
CCK:: I love it.
ARK:: Let's go on with the show. Okay. So first up The Exorcist
Released in 1973 directed by William Friedkin. The Exorcist is the story of a 12 year old Reagan [00:06:00] MacNeil played by Linda. Blair Who becomes demonically possessed her mother, Chris McNeil, a famous film actress played by Ellen Burstyn seeks the help of two priests to perform an exorcism.
The priests are father Damien. Karrass played by Jason Miller and father Len Kester. Marin played by max fence.
The screenplay was written by William Peter Blatty, who also wrote the best-selling book that the film was based on and aspects of that novel were based on allegedly real [00:06:30] events, specifically a series of exorcisms that were performed in the 1940s on a young boy, age 14, known under the pseudonyms roll into DOE or Robbie Manheim, the problems for this film started early.
Even before the production could begin. Warner brothers had initially sought out other directors for their project, including Mike Nichols and Stanley Kubrick, which.
CCK:: What would a Mike Nichols excersice to be?
ARK:: I was [00:07:00] actually more fascinated with the Stanley Kubrick version, but
CCK:: it's on brand for Stanley Kubrick.
ARK:: I agree
That is on brand for Kubrick and you're right. Mike Nichols.
CCK:: demon be like a fast talking
ARK:: interestingly enough, Mike Nichols, the reason he turned down the directing job was because he wanted to see the Exorcist. And I think, man, I hope I'm remembering this story. Right. And that I'm not con like conflating it with [00:07:30] another movie, but I'm almost positive. The reason Mike Nichols turned down the directing job for this was because he wanted to play it out as if, is this little girl really?
possessed Or is there like a mental illness aspect? Or is there something else going on? That's not possession.
CCK:: So he probably would have tamped down a lot of the like physical stuff that we [00:08:00] saw in the, in freed Ken's version.
ARK:: I would say. But I mean if you're not in the head space to say that person is possessed in a way you could maybe see it as like symptoms of an exactly.
CCK:: It is interesting though, because Reagan has a single mother, a single career woman, mother, which at the time, there was the thought that like families and children were going to be [00:08:30] ruined by strong single career women, not being at home to raise the children.
ARK:: especially an actress like her career is not just a regular career either. William, Peter Blatty, however, he had a first choice of director and he fought hard to get William Friedkin the job.
CCK:: Now, what was William Friedkin known for
ARK:: William Friedkin. when he directed the Exorcist, he was actually fresh off of a best director. [00:09:00] Oscar win for the. French Connection, He did a lot of movies and a lot of them, you would probably recognize, but for me, the French connection was the only one besides the Exorcist that I've actually seen.
And remember. And initially? I think Warner brothers, which is the studio that produced it, they were averse to hiring Friedkin, which is odd because he he like, literally, he had just won. the Oscar. So you think he would have been a draw, but [00:09:30] he did have like that old school, Alfred Hitchcock style of directing, which meant he liked to torture his actors in order to get the performance that he wanted.
So but, but bladdy eventually won out and Friedkin came on as director, and then they started. having Trouble getting their cast into place. So the studio really wanted Marlon Brando for the role of father Merrin, [00:10:00]
CCK:: There's no way to curse the movie better than casting Marlon Brando,
ARK:: flat out refused. He was certain that it bringing in Brando would make it a Brando production and would take away from the story that was being told.
And I don't disagree with that necessarily. But when Friedkin saw a picture of Gerald Lancaster Harding, which was the archeologist that the character father Merrin was based on [00:10:30] Friedkin immediately thought of actor max Von Sydow, like physically, he saw the picture and he was like, that looks like
And sit out, accepted the part after reading the script. And I know this is, I mean He was actually much younger, I mean, he was an
CCK:: always amazes
ARK:: Yes. He was a much younger person than the role of father Marin was. So they did an old age makeup on him and [00:11:00] it was a pretty, I think it was a pretty convincing old age makeup.
because for years after every time. I, saw max Von
CCK:: how is he alive? He's like the Abe Vigoda.
ARK:: yes, I'm like, wasn't he 80.
When he made the exercises,
CCK:: I also think he was just a person who like, in his forties, he looked like he could have been 60
ARK:: All those actors were
CCK:: in the seventies.
ARK:: back in the fifties.
CCK:: It was a hard, there's a lot of smoking and [00:11:30] drinking
ARK:: Yeah. and and just coming off of two, humongous wars and, and well, and in the seventies and even more humongous war and
CCK:: that's true.
ARK:: So for the role of father Charisse, both Jack Nicholson and Paul Newman were considered, which are both very interesting. people for that role. It was the role was eventually given to Stacy Keach until William Friedkin went and saw a performance of Jason Miller's play [00:12:00] that championship season. And Friedkin really liked Miller.
He really liked the idea of putting an actor on screen that would not be immediately recognizable as like, oh, I've seen this guy in tons of things. And quite frankly, Miller was pretty perfect for the role, not just because of the like quiet intensity and like the haunted eyes, but he actually studied to be a Jesuit priest for three [00:12:30] years until he experienced a crisis of faith.
Just like the character of Damien character. So the, I know, so the studio of me,
CCK:: to me,
ARK:: so the studio eventually agreed about Miller and they bought Stacy Keach out of his contract.
CCK:: Wow.
ARK:: Easiest money Stacy Keach ever made.
CCK:: I love when you hear about famous roles that were supposed to go to another actor and it's just like, I just [00:13:00] cannot for the life of me, imagine someone else
ARK:: I know the what ifs are amazing, but you're right. I could not imagine anyone, but Jason Miller in that role, he is, he was born to play that role, quite frankly for the role of Chris McNeil, which is the
the production, unlike. with the Other roles that they kind of were having trouble filling for the role of the mother. They actually had their choice of a list actresses
CCK:: maybe [00:13:30] because it was such a strong female role, which there weren't that.
I mean, I think it was beginning to be a time when there were more of those kinds of roles, like the seventies in general. But, but I think that because it was a strong woman role, maybe
ARK:: it made it more interesting. yes. So Audrey Hepburn was
CCK:: Oh my God I cannot.
ARK:: but, But her, her thing was, she wanted to be filmed in Rome because that's where she was with her husband and [00:14:00] Friedkin did not want to do that.
He did not want to work with an Italian cast or crew.
CCK:: I feel like that would have made it even more cursed. Somehow it would have been creepier in Rome.
ARK:: Next was Anne Bancroft, who I personally love.
CCK:: I actually think she would have been good.
ARK:: She also wanted the role, but she asked if they could delay at nine months because she was pregnant at the time. and Friedkin did not want to delay it that long. And then furthermore, he didn't want to work with a brand new mother on a, [00:14:30] on a story like
CCK:: this.
ARK:: Shirley McClain was considered, but Friedkin didn't like her because she had just started. in another possession film called the possession of Joel Delaney,
CCK:: which I don't know if I've ever even heard of, have you seen
ARK:: I don't think I've ever
CCK:: seen.
ARK:: it. And eventually the part went to Ellen Burstyn who at the time was a relative unknown.
Oh, so the part eventually went to Ellen Burstyn who at the time was a [00:15:00] relative. unknown, But she actually called up William Friedkin and told them that she was destined to play the role of Chris McNeil. I know. And finally, the role of the young girl Reagan now, while attempting to cast this role, many of the young actresses that were being considered for the part were stopped from taking the role by their parents who feared that the subject matter would be too traumatizing.[00:15:30]
CCK:: I do not blame them. I mean, come on, Nirvana baby. All you had to do is swim around in a pool naked. Imagine being
ARK:: Yeah.
So freakin ended up meeting with then 14 year old Blair and casting her as Reagan right away because she was, she was perfect for it. She was A normal teenager. Yeah. cute.
good
actress.
And there were a handful of scenes that were deemed too [00:16:00] violent or too disturbing to put a 14 year old girl in the middle of, so they also hired a 29 year old actress by the name of Eileen Dietz, who was also the face of the demon Pazuzu, which we'll discuss a little bit later. And finally, the voice of Pazuzu was performed by voice actress, Mercedes McCambridge, a woman who Orson Welles once called the world's greatest living radio actress.
And I agree with Wells after [00:16:30] hearing that McCambridge took up routine of swallowing raw eggs chain smoking and drinking whiskey in order to make her voice as guttural and demonic as possible, which is funny because that's actually our
pre podcaster routine.
CCK:: Let me crack open and a deer. No, I can't eat eggs. They, they upset my stomach.
ARK:: And actually McCambridge was tied to a chair for some of her [00:17:00] recording sessions because Friedkin really wanted to,
get the sound that the demon was struggling against.
CCK:: Oh my God. Wait, I don't know if you have this in here, sister, but do you have something that she was either she had either given up smoking or given up
ARK:: I think she'd given a bowl at the time he had called
CCK:: and so she took them both back up again to the detriment of her health.
ARK:: Yeah.
Okay. Now back to Pazuzu for a second.
CCK:: I love it. That's those [00:17:30] cookies, right? With the ice cream on top and like better sketch.
ARK:: Bazookie Pazooki is the demon Pazooki is the demon that possesses me? Pazuzu is the demon that possesses Raycon McNeil after the girl finds and starts playing with the Weegee board. Although the entity she is communicating with via the board calls itself, captain howdy Pazuzu is an actual demon from myths of the religion of ancient Mesopotamian [00:18:00] region.
So swimmer a Cod, a Syria, and Babylonia, and Pazuzu was said to be the king of demons of the wind, and is the bearer of storms and drought. But interestingly enough, in seeming direct contrast to how he is used in the Exorcist Pazuzu was often the dad that was invoked to protect both mother and child during childbirth.
Yeah. So perhaps it was this gross [00:18:30] misrepresentation of Pazuzu that led to the alleged curse on the Exorcist film because the trouble started almost immediately. while any large production can expect their share of mishaps and technical issues. It seemed that the excersice had more than its fair share from key props going missing.
The minute they are needed for a scene to nine crew members, all being struck with sunstroke and dysentery while shooting the opening scenes in Iraq. The set for Chris and Reagan's house completely [00:19:00] burned down. one night with one exception. The set for the possessed Reagan's room. It was untouched by the fire that shut down production for six weeks,
CCK:: I don't like that.
ARK:: the, Oh, it gets better. The best theory that they came up with, for their insurance claims with the they thought, a pigeon might have flown into electric, an electrical box causing a short circuit and igniting the blaze when they were able to finally return to the film. Again, a problem with the sprinkler [00:19:30] system, shut them down for an additional two weeks.
A
Carpenter cutoff a couple of fingers while working on a set, a set electrician lost a toe. For one scene when Ellen Berstons, Chris McNeil is slapped so hard by her demon possessed daughter that she flies across the room.
In order to achieve this shot Burstyn was strapped into a rigging that would allow the actress to be Pulled across the set by a crew member in one, take the take that actually ended up in the film. The crew member pulled too [00:20:00] hard on the rigging causing burst into cry out in pain. The actress had seriously injured her back and neck and in a different scene.
Reagan MacNeil is violently thrashing on her bed, demonstrating the inhuman strength and speed of the demon. For this scene. Linda Blair was rigged into a harness that could be controlled mechanically to move the girl up and down. After several takes, the harness had come loose and no one noticed. So the girl was being violently pushed forward and pulled back down.
She suffered a [00:20:30] fracture in her lower spine, and it would plague her for the rest of her life. And again, that was the footage that was used in the film because she was screaming in pain.
and crying and yeah, But the injuries that occurred were nothing compared to the strange and multiple deaths surrounding. the film, The most famous of which is Jack McGowan, the actor who played Burke. Dennings the film director, working with the Ellen Berstons character.
[00:21:00] He died shortly before the release of the film.
He died from complications related to the
in the film. He is one of the first victims of the Pazuzu possessed Reagan when she breaks his neck and then throws him from her bedroom window.
Actress, Wasilewski malarious who played father Charisse, his mother
died. She died shortly after filming her scenes for the movie. And again, [00:21:30] she is one of the deaths in the film. Several. Did you see that? Am I crazy or did the light
CCK:: my God. The light just flickered. No, I can't take it anymore.
ARK:: Okay. Several members of, oops, sorry. Several members of the cast and crew lost family members during the production, including stars, Linda Blair and max Von Sydow. in total, there were nine deaths that surrounded the cast and crew during filming.
Although not necessarily while on [00:22:00] set, including a camera operator, stillborn baby, a security guard, a janitor, and a set tech.
CCK:: You know, I will say one thing that I, I thought of while I was looking at this topic that I didn't do research on, but maybe we could what is the average death toll on a normal movie?
ARK:: I know I thought about that too,
CCK:: because it is, it does involve like the big films at least involves so many people that it seems like you're bound to get a [00:22:30] fair number of, you know, just random deaths like you would have in a normal
ARK:: and mishaps like how many electricians get zapped while they're setting up. You know what I mean?
Like, But I agree. I agree. I bet. Especially based on the production size, it could, be there were several near deaths as well, including Jason Miller's son who was nearly killed in a freak motorcycle accident when he was almost killed by a motorcycle that appeared out of nowhere while he was on a [00:23:00] beach.
CCK:: Oh my
gosh. That is so weird. Now this is the son that was in speed.
ARK:: Oh, That's his son? Shut up. Wait, who's his son,
CCK:: The one from lost boys.
ARK:: Jason. Patrick. Is his son.
CCK:: They famously had like a big falling out. Apparently
ARK:: I guess I can kind Whoa.[00:23:30]
He was
CCK:: No
ARK:: Anthony Miller.
CCK:: Whoa. Jason. Patrick is speed too,
ARK:: Oh yeah. But
CCK:: which I've never seen, which is crazy
ARK:: see it? Nope. You want to talk about cursed films? That
CCK:: loved speed wa yeah, I guess maybe that's why I don't see
it
ARK:: Okay. This is one of my favorite stories.
I don't know if it's true, but man, I hope [00:24:00] it's true. one morning when cast and crew started to arrive for another day of shooting, they walked into a set that was covered in
It was later theorized that this was a malfunction of the multiple air conditioners that were run in order to achieve That severe cold that is present whenever the demon is in full force and Reagan, But man, talk about.
like, Well, actually the next thing that happens just goes to show what would have been the [00:24:30] feeling on set? You have this fire, you have all these mishaps, you have these deaths, then you come in one day and the inside set is covered in snow so freakin in a bid to calm his cast and crew asked the Jesuit priest that was on set as a consultant to bless the set. Actually, he asked the consultant to do an exorcism, but the consultant was like, no, I can't do that.
But I can do a blessing on the set which he did.
And it seemed that most of the strange occurrences on [00:25:00] set stopped, Except for a couple of days later, there was a fire in the Jesuit residence set in Georgetown.
CCK:: gosh
ARK:: I know there was another malevolent force in this film, although it wouldn't be discovered until years later in one scene before Reagan strange behavior is ascribed to a demonic possession. They show the girl and her mother searching for a medical explanation.
Part of this exhaustive search was to get the girl a cerebral [00:25:30] angiography
Friedkin worked with the actual New York university medical center team in order to get the scene to have an authentic and realistic look, which it totally does. The radiological technologist that appears on screen was a man named Paul Bateson.
Six years after the filming of the Exorcist Bateson was arrested for the murder of film critic, Addison Varol. However, the police believed that Bateson may have also been involved with a series of murders that occurred in New York city, [00:26:00] between 1975 and 1970. The murders were known as the bag murders because the six discovered victims were dismembered and stuffed into plastic bags before being dumped in the Hudson river.
Richard Ryan, a witness at the Bateson trial claimed that Bateson had admitted to him that in addition to the Addison Varol murder, he had also killed and dismembered six gay men before tossing their remains and the river, no charges were ever brought against Bateson for these crimes due to lack of.
evidence. [00:26:30] However, while Paul Bateson was being held at Rikers island, awaiting trial director, William Friedkin visited him frequently and shortly after freakin would adapt Gerald Walker's novel cruising, which is a novel about an undercover policemen on the hunt for a serial killer targeting gay men in the New York SNM leather subcultures.
CCK:: crazy
ARK:: so despite all the forces seemingly against this movie, it was eventually finished, although [00:27:00] way behind schedule and well over budget. The film was not previewed for film critics before its limited release on only 30 screens in 24 theaters, mostly in large cities, but in just the first.
week, It became apparent that the box office draw of the film was definitely not cursed. So the studio quickly expanded into a wide release and the stories that were coming out about the experience of watching the film, drew even more curious viewers, there were [00:27:30] reports of people, grown men, fainting people, vomiting in the theaters.
There was even a widely reported story about when the movie was screened in Rome, a bolt of lightning struck the giant cross on the top of a church directly across from the theater.
CCK:: oh my gosh. Well, I've got, I remember one such incident, mom and antibi went to go see it in the theater. And when mom came home, she didn't want to talk about it.
And she slept [00:28:00] with the light on, in her room for like a week.
ARK:: that is awesome.
CCK:: Yeah.
ARK:: The exercise was nominated for 10 academy awards in 1974, including best picture, best director and acting nominations for its three lead actors Burstyn Miller and Blair. It would only win two of the awards. It was nominated for best sound and best adapted screenplay. Although at the golden Globes, it took home trophies for best director, [00:28:30] best screenplay and best actress for Linda Blair.
CCK:: Wow.
ARK:: And the Exorcist, as you know, I think I've even mentioned it on this podcast, it is probably, it is my number one scary movie, but it's just in terms of all movies. It's definitely in my top 10 I love this movie. I think so much about it as masterful. The acting to me is so naturalistic, which [00:29:00] is weird in a movie where you're dealing with something like demonic possession, but like Linda.
Blair. I mean, don't get me wrong. Her acting in the lake possession stuff is amazing. Like that could not have been an easy thing to do, but just all the stuff leading up to that, it's like, she's such a pleasure to watch. Like she's such, you know, like she plays off Ellen Burstyn perfectly
CCK:: She seems like a real tween,
ARK:: A hundred percent. Yes.
CCK:: [00:29:30] kind of mischievous
ARK:: But not like annoyingly. So like, yeah,
CCK:: I
ARK:: And Jason Miller he's like again, he's like
haunting when he's on screen. max van sedan was really good. You know,
CCK:: I agree. I, I loved the Exorcist, although I will say I'm less able to handle scary movies than you are, so I haven't seen it all, but I think [00:30:00] I've seen it twice. I saw like the older version.
ARK:: Right. And then they did like, a rerelease D, which I think you and I went to go see in the theaters when they
CCK:: Did I scream a lot?
ARK:: Yeah. I used, I used to hate going to movie theaters. to watch scary movies with you because I'm always like, oh, She's going to scream. I can tell
she's going to scream.
This is going to be so embarrassing.
CCK:: Well, Another antibi story she [00:30:30] went to, they were in Washington DC and the staircase that's next to the building
ARK:: Which those
stairs have become to be known as the Exorcist stairs.
Like they're Such a part of that.
film Caerus falls down the stairs and max Denning falls down the stairs. Yeah.
CCK:: Apparently antibi was just walking down the street, like didn't realize that's where she was. They were just walking around the area. Cause it's like a picturesque, [00:31:00] nice part of Washington DC. And she said all the hair on the back of her neck suddenly stood up and she turned and looked and saw the staircase and she had a picture of
ARK:: it.
Remember the picture
CCK:: but it's, it's, it may be too intense for some viewers.
Do you know if any of the following Exorcist films had any strange. Occurrences because there were two, there was the excersice [00:31:30] two and the Exorcist
ARK:: Right and then there
CCK:: was a pre-qual.
ARK:: Yeah. You know, as, I don't know, I don't know. Yeah. I I'm curious
CCK:: about
that I kind of think not, or it probably would have been mentioned in some of the stuff you read.
ARK:: Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I've got nothing else. I was just going to talk more about. The like the sound,
CCK:: you know, it's interesting. Cause when you said it won an Oscar for sound I feel like it really deserved it because I remember the sounds [00:32:00] in that
ARK:: they purposely mixed sounds that they knew. People would have a visceral reaction, to like sounds
CCK:: sound or something
ARK:: Sounds of animals roaring the buzzing of bees, things that the lizard brain would just naturally have an aversion to, as being danger. Exactly. Yeah. And it's got one of [00:32:30] the greatest lines ever deliver it in a
CCK:: Give it to me sister.
Oh my God
ARK:: God. I
CCK:: I don't even like to listen to that.
ARK:: What an excellent day for an exorcism. Oh my God. It's delivered so perfectly.
CCK:: Oh, so creepy.
So five years before the Exorcist Rosemary's baby, based on
IRA, Eleven's
bestselling novel in rage. The Catholic church, became one of [00:33:00] the highest grossing films of 1968, propelled Roman Polanski to Hollywood celebrity and developed one heck of a curse . The movie's tagline was it's not what you're expecting a play on the fact that it's about a young, attractive couple Rosemary and guy would house played by Mia Farrow and John Cassavetes, who were talking about starting a family while struggling actor guy is also trying to [00:33:30] advance his career.
They move into a new fabulously creepy apartment in the Bradford building, which has a story to past filled with cannibals and devil worship and whatnot. Typical New York stuff. The couple are befriended by mod back when she was named many and married to her first husband before Harold Roman cast Yvette.
That was a very confusing way to say that. Harold and Maude. Yes.
ARK:: Ruth Gordon.
CCK:: [00:34:00] Rosemary gets pregnant after eating funky tasting chocolate mousse made by many, but she's confused about what happened on the night that she conceived and has weird memories of possibly a demon, maybe Anton LeVay. She's also increasingly being cut off from her friends and guy is acting weird as hell as well.
Is it a conspiracy by the entire building? His guy in on it was that chalky under taste LSD in that mood. I wrote [00:34:30] 11 author of the books. Rosemary's baby set of the completely fictional story, unlike Exorcist and Amityville horror which were based on true stories. Having observed that the most suspenseful part of a horror story was before not after the horror appears, I was struck one day by the thought that a fetus could be an effective horror.
If the reader knew it was growing into something malign really different from the baby expected nine [00:35:00] whole months of anticipation with the horror inside the heroin.
Rosemary's baby was released in the us in June, 1968 and was well received by critics and did well at the box office. Even though the Catholic church gave it a C rating for condemn.
And that C rating could also have stood for cursed because the curse that seemed to surround the set and participants of this movie was one of the worst. [00:35:30] So you were talking about in the Exorcist, just like the different people who had been talked about being cast for some of the roles. And I thought it was interesting, Jack Nicholson was originally considered for the role of guy would house.
ARK:: Now, unlike the role in the Exorcist, I actually could have totally seen Jack. Nicholson in this role
CCK:: I could too, although in a way there is [00:36:00] something slightly more creepy about Jack Nicholson that I think would have like undermined that. Yeah. Yeah. That's what I kind of think. Let's see. So, okay. So as far as the cursor. We'll go person by person of who the curse affected.
So first off Mia Farrow who played Rosemary wood house. She was served with divorce papers on the set by her husband at the time old blue eyes [00:36:30] himself, Frank Sinatra also, despite winning the David de Donna Tello award for best foreign actress and the photo grandma's Diplodocus award for best foreign movie performer, and also being nominated for best actress at the Laurel awards, the golden Globes and the BAFTAs Mia Farrow was not nominated for the Oscar for her performance.
Ultimately I think she got off pretty late.
ARK:: Yeah. I mean the divorce [00:37:00] papers, I mean, I guess not being nominated for an academy. award, it's pretty bad, but I, I seem to recall reading that, she almost left the film.
to try and go work on
CCK:: she did. She was trying to work on another. She was trying to work on a movie called the detectives that would, Frank Sinatra was in at the same time. So she was flying back and forth and, and it wasn't working out. So Frank Sinatra being the OJI [00:37:30] text breakup guy just sent her some divorce papers.
So William castle was the producer who made it his mission to bring
IRA, Eleven's
novel, faithfully to the.
And he developed severe kidney stones, which required surgery after the film was released in his autobiography. He claimed that during surgery, he began to hallucinate scenes from the movie and even shouted Rosemary for God's sake, drop that knife.
[00:38:00] He wrote that after getting the recognition, he desired, he no longer cared. I was at home, very frightened of Rosemary's baby
ARK:: Oh my God.
CCK:: IRA, Eleven's, the books author after the film's release, his life began to fall apart. His wife left him the year the film was released and he also drew the ire of the Catholic church despite saying that he never believed in witches or Satanism.
He admitted to Dick Cavett [00:38:30] that as he grew older, he became terrified. By the thought of Satan and satanic forces, 30 years after the debut of Rosemary's baby, he released son of Rosemary, a critically panned sequel to his masterpiece. So we died not having any success as big as Rosemary's baby. And then his last book, son of Rosemary being a critical and monetary failure.
John [00:39:00] Cassavetes, during pre-production Cassavetes and Polonsky were BFFs, but during production Cassavetes wanted to improv and explore the space. But Polanski wanted to do a film that didn't suck
at loggerheads.
mean know my feelings on improv,
the Cassavetes
I mean,
if anyone could have done it, I guess he could have. And Polanski would go on to say John Cassavetes was [00:39:30] not my best experience I have to say.
Christoph co Madame, the film's composer fell off a cliff in Los Angeles and suffered a cerebral hemorrhage just months after completing his work on the film. As a result of the fall coma Dom only 38 fell into a coma and eventually died. Roman Polanski, the director on August 8th, 1969, his pregnant wife, Sharon Tate, who he allegedly [00:40:00] wanted to cast originally in the role of Rosemary before being overturned by Robert Evans was murdered by the Manson family in a rented house on CLO drive in Los Angeles.
Tate actually did appear in a background party scene in the movie Rosemary's baby. And then I felt like this was kind of a stretch, but I included it. John Lennon. John Lennon had nothing to do with them moving Rosemary's baby. But the [00:40:30] Dakota apartment building in New York was used for the exterior shots for the apartment building in Rosemary's baby.
The fictional Branford on December 8th, 1980, John Lennon of the Beatles was shot and killed outside the Dakota where he lived. He had nothing to do directly with the movie, as I said, but he was friends with Mia Farrow. And when the Manson family dispatched Sharon Tate, they wrote Helter Skelter on the wall and blood helter-skelter being one of the songs on the white album, [00:41:00] which Manson used as a blueprint for his revolution
ARK:: I'll do you one better when Mark David Chapman was standing outside the Dakota, wondering if he should go through with killing John Lennon, he basically asked the universe for a sign At that exact moment. Mia Farrow walked by and in Mark David Chapman's mind. He was like, [00:41:30] this is the building where Rosemary's baby took place. Mia Farrow just walked by the building where Rosemary's baby took place which she started. That is
And when John Lennon returned later that evening, Mark David Chapman shot him.
Yeah.
CCK:: Wow. Have you seen Rosemary's baby?
ARK:: Oh yeah, definitely.
CCK:: Have you seen Rosemary's baby? The remake was Zoe Saldana.[00:42:00]
It was a four hour TV movie. And I have
ARK:: Whoa. No, I did not even know it.
CCK:: No, it's, it's funny because when I read about, when I noticed it and stuff, I was reading it's from 2017, I think. Yeah. And I, and I read that and I'm like, what? And then in the back of my mind, I did kind of like vaguely remember it, but it's weird because I hardly saw anything about it.
I don't remember watching it and I [00:42:30] haven't seen it, but I have watched Rosemary's baby at least a couple of times. And I have to admit it's kind of a movie that's grown on me because I think, I think that there is so much anticipatory buildup that I didn't appreciate when I first saw the movie, but that really does add to the kind of like suspense in a weird, and just like the overall oppressive weirdness of the place, the [00:43:00] people, everything.
I also wanted to ask you though did you get the feeling that the force who might have had reason to curse these films was the Catholic church or God,
or I don't know. I mean, it just seemed to me like Rosemary's baby had very [00:43:30] hard pushback from the Catholic church and if some major organization was gonna like curse something, doesn't seem like the Capitol. I mean, we are Catholic. I mean, you know, we were born in and baptized and raised Catholic,
ARK:: You, well, yes, I, well, it's funny because while researching some of the films that you researched, I definitely did have the thought of, [00:44:00] this is like devil PR And for me, it, it, I mean, it kind of seems like the devil would be like, okay with
CCK:: Oh yeah. So, so it's not the devil going, oh, curse. You, you, you really are giving me a bad name and I'm just a nice guy trying to, you know, manage hell,
ARK:: But then again, I guess you can look at it as that the devil's greatest power [00:44:30] is in people thinking that he doesn't exist.
So maybe he wouldn't want, this kind of attention on him. in this way,
CCK:: You don't think we're tempting a curse on this podcast? You sister, I mean, no, I guess some entity would have to be listening to it and we know that's not going to happen.